Awarding Financial Aid

 

The process of awarding aid without exceeding the student’s Need and Cost of Attendance is traditionally called packaging. 

• The general rule in packaging is that the student’s total financial aid and other Estimated Financial Assistance (EFA) must not exceed the student’s Cost of Attendance (COA).  
• In addition, schools must ensure that any need-based funds packaged do not go over the student’s need as defined by the formula COA – EFC = Need.

Packaging Timeframes

Packaging financial aid awards for the upcoming award year generally begins in November/December for the next Fall term and is ongoing throughout the award year.

• Financial aid awards packaged during this time are split equally between the Fall and Spring term. 
• Packaging awards for the Spring semester generally begins in November for students who are not attending the Fall term. 
• Packaging awards for Summer usually begins in March.

Priority Deadline

Applicants whose financial aid files are complete (all required documents submitted and processed) by the College’s priority deadline (January 15) will receive maximum consideration in the distribution of funding resources according to funding criteria. 

 

Eligible applicants completing a file after the priority deadline will be packaged with Federal Pell Grant (if eligible), Federal Work Study* (dependent on availability of funds and if student indicates interest) and loans. Due to limited funding, the College cannot attempt to meet 100% of the financial need of students with grant money. 

Guidelines for Awarding Aid

Guidelines for awarding financial aid:

• The Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is determined as a result of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). 
• Need-based aid is determined by the formula: Cost of Attendance minus Expected Family Contribution = Need.  (COA – EFC = Need) 
• The Federal Pell Grant is the foundation (the first award if student is eligible) of the financial aid package.  Note: Per federal regulations, students cannot receive Pell Grant from 2 schools at the same time. 
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) is awarded according to federal guidelines. Federal Pell Grant recipients with the lowest Expected Family Contribution ($0) have first priority for FSEOG funding. 
• Collin’s philosophy is to award one supplemental grant per student in order to award as many eligible students as possible.
• Students can receive aid for a class they already passed one time only.
• Students can only receive aid for developmental classes up to 30 semester hours. Any developmental coursework taken beyond 30 hours will have to be paid from the student’s own resources (i.e., out of their pocket). 
• Generally speaking, students must be enrolled in all classes by the census date* in order to receive grant funds for those classes. This means that if a student anticipates taking an express class, they must be enrolled in that class by the census date (12th class day of the long semester) or they will not receive grant funding for the class. Loans and work study are not affected by this rule.
• Award packages are created based on expected full-time enrollment. Adjustments will be made at the end of the add/drop period (census date**) for changes in enrollment status. These adjustments will affect assigned budgets and award amounts and may result in reduced or cancelled awards.

 

Note: Due to the large applicant pool and limited funding allocations, not all students meeting the priority deadline are awarded funds from all programs.

 

*To read more about the census date and how it affects your awards, click here.